I was trying to shoot these break dancers once and all these kids just kept doing that - in the end I just shouted in my best scary directors voice - 'we are making a film here can you keep your fXXXing brats out of shot please' - well bugger me if it didnt work, and some people said sorry ! Wouldnt really work at a wedding...

I think it may have been cos we had a small crew, someone was holding a clipboard (top tip - makes you look scary) but mostly maybe cos the dancers were real homies. The pisser is the camera was running and I have lost the tape.

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I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

This is my first post here and I hope nobody will have a hard time understanding my bad English.
Anyway, as a Belgian wedding videographer , reading 2darts experience, I noticed that there's really no difference in all the problems you encounter with your first time shoot. Especially the part of hitting the record button and noticing that you actually put the camera on pause
This has happened quite often to me in the beginning of my "career", now it has become a habit of each time checking the text in my display to assure it's in record mode. Especially when everything has to go really fast you tend to forget checking your camera settings.
I usually work alone, but can also only agree that a multicam setup of a wedding is the best way to go, working alone does put a lot of stress on you because you get only one shot, one try to get it right. It takes some time and experience not to be afraid to take a position were you can get the best shot, and at the meantime not to become the main attraction. Most of the people in church still want to see the couple and not the back of an annoying videographer.

Another thing which has been pointed out by Marc was about the risk of unmanned camera's. To tell you the truth, I never ever leave my camera unattended. Especially when unmanned on a tripod with small children running around you don't have to imagine what would happen if the tripod would fall.
I even hold my camera tighter to me all day then I would do with my wife
Eventough the wedding day can be very stressful I love every bit of it. Especially when I'm driving home, after a 14-15hour working day I just can't wait capturing everything to my pc that I shot that day and then the most fun just begins.
I really like the enthusiasm in 2darts writing, this sets him apart from all the videographers who only do this to make a quick buck. Just reading how much effort he took to get his first try right I can only admire this. just keep that up if you ever want to do this full time.

Blimey...reading this thread has given me the sweats.....hats off to you guys who do the wedding stuff.....can't imagine how big a catastrophe it could be, especially if you miss those vital shots....multicam certainly saves everyones bacon at one time or another...always nice to have a static cam to fall back on....not literally of course

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www.whinbushmultimedia.co.uk named after the Whin bush, (Gorse) that grows where we live in Northern Ireland.

Noa, thank you so much for posting! I am greatly encouraged to find out that even in other parts around the world, the same kinds of issues that I dealt with, are the same kinds of issues others deal with too. And I thank you for your kind words. Your enthusiasm and love for what you do comes through clearly on your posting as well, and I admire you for the fact that you actually do this professionally and on your own! Wow! I wish I could sit in and watch what you do and how you do it.

I do have one question for you. You said you work alone, and that you recommend a multicam set up (which I wholeheartedly agree on), but you also mention never to leave the other cameras alone and unattended. How do you do this if you are working alone? I'm just curious, because in the future when I do this again, I'd like to be able to implement the things people have been suggesting here. So I'd very much like to know how you handle this issue, so I also can put it into practise.

I was fortunate enough to have a fairly high stained-glass window ledge on either side of the church at the back on which to set up my other unattended cameras, so they were quite out of the way of the people (and their kids). It made it nice for getting a clear unobstructed view too.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

The best advise I can give everybody is to contact a videographer and ask if you can follow him all day, this is how I started. I did take my own cam with me, tried not to get in the way but shot a lot of footage as well and made a 30 minute compilation from it on dvd. I gave the dvd for free to the other videographer who gave it as some kind of bonus to the weddingcouple.

Now I (almost) always work alone and most of my work is a one camera registration, I always have a backup camera with me but never use it except when my main camera would not work. I always let the couple choose wether they want a single or a 2 cam setup, but a 2 cam set up raises the price considerably and most of them choose the cheapest (1 cam solution). Even when I explain the advantages to them they don't care. I live in a part of Belgium not that far from the Dutch and German border and here people are very price conscious, I also often operate around the Antwerp region and there people have more to spend, but even then a 1 camera setup is sufficient for them. It's usually the photographer which costs 2 to 3 times more then what I am charging.

Theres also the fact that it is not easy finding experienced videographers who can make themselves available for a few hours the weddingday as they often have obligations as well.
I don't have any ambitions to the future to expand my business to more people and actually like to keep it a one man thing.

Some more advice I could give you is to always travel light, my tripod f.i. hangs with a strap around my sholder and I have a "special" jacket with a lot of pockets. Here I put everything form cassettes, sparebattery, camera light (I use a 3 watt sony lamp for my vx2100 which is very small but sufficient for dark area's) and more small material. So I never have seperate bags with me to drag into church and so on.
I can tell you that when you work alone most of the time you develop a sixth sence for things that are happening around you, also experience makes a difference as once you get to know the wedding traditions you have an idea what will happen when. Only for the unexpected things you need to be lucky.

I also never tape more then 3 hours during a whole wedding day because I just tape what is necesarry to get my 50min dvd at the end. People here are not interested in seeing complete chuch ceremonie but just the highlights.

For this year I have a new "gadget" that I offer and it's a "talking box", it's a big box containing a harddisk recorder, a tv and a small camera. It's placed in the evening when all the guests arrive and it records continuously until the end of the party. Guests can see themselves on the tv and can speak their wishes into the cam. Afterwards a dvd is made from that and I can tell you that the later it gets the more interesting the messages get . People love the idea of having a talking guestbook and they show more interest in that dvd then the actual wedding dvd.

What I talked about here is actually only the filming part, editing is a whole different story and you should always keep the editing part in mind while you are filming, f.i. a nice effect which always gives a oooo or aaaaa with the weddingcouple when you show it is actually so simple to achieve. When the guests arrive I put the camera outside on a tripod and film it for a minute or 2, I assure that I have an image with no people on it and the same with people.
When editing I just put the footage with no people on the first videotrack and a part with people on the second videotrack and then I just place a crossdissolve at the beginning and end of that second videotrack. Then you see a building and door and suddenly people appearing out of nowwhere and dissapearing again. You only need to assure not to touch your camera while filming.
I rather use these type of effects over any build in effect that especially cheap editing software is filled with.

Anyway, if you need to know more, just let me know. If I can help I would gladly do that.

I've got to disagree with the idea of doing a wedding "solo". I would never work alone. It's essential to have some-sort of assistant, either to record sound, watch the kit or to be able to operate a second camcorder if required. In the same way I would never produce a sub-standard video. If two cameras are required, then two cameras are part of the deal. When you're starting up you've got to get a repuatation and, once you're known as a cheap videographer, you can't get out of that rut.

I know that weddings in continental europe are different to the UK and the church or registry office ceremony isn't considered the main part of the video but, in my experience, if you deliver a (shortened) ceremony with good sound and different camera angles "a la television" the couple (and, more importantly, the parents) go "wow!".

The idea of a video-booth is a good one, I usually do "vox pops" with the guests but the idea of having an unattended camcorder permenantly running is interesting...

You definetely got a point about the price part but I dont intend charging more in the future, as long I can make a livin out of it and can make the necesarry investments thats ok for me and so far thats going fine. A multicam setup is allways better ofcourse, something which I do occasionally. But I leave it up to the couple to decide and often the price is more important to them then the extra possibilities. I have seen work from my competitors, some charging double of what I charge and I have no problem comparing my work to theirs, eventhough they have 2 to 3 cameras operating. During the ceremony I gather enough material, short shots from the relatives and friends and edit it in such a way that it looks like a multicam setup. When you are alone you get very inventive

This doesnt mean I consider myself as good, I constantly try to improve what I do and learn a lot from demo's I find on the net, especially American videographers weddingdemo's because they often are very good. I was planning to buy some kind of steadycam device as s next investment for during the fotoshoot as these gliding shots look very professional.

The "talking" guestbook box is actually quite simple in set-up, its a simple harddisrecorder connected through firewire to a small camera and it records more then 10hours without a problem on the highest mpeg quality. Only the editingpart takes a while, you can do the biggest cutting and deleting inside the harddiskrecorder and then capture from recorder through a camera to the pc. The quality is suprisingly good. Not hdv quality ofcourse but less quality is often forgiven for these types of recordings. You can't imagine what people say in front of an unmanned camera

Congratulations on your induction into the wedding market. I've been filming weddings for 10 years and love the buzz of the whole day. You have to like the taste of your own adrenilin though.
The satisfaction when you do a great job for the client far exceeds any other kind of work we do. My advice is to always use 2 cameras - 1 is for the interesting, the other for fail safe shots. You can't always produce really smooth pans and sometimes the crash zoom is needed - this will cover you!
Every wedding brings new surprises and I'm always learning. Always try and make the next video better than the last and eventually you'll have the perfect video - I haven't yet, but I'm getting closer!

Noa - I love the idea of the video box. I would be interested in more details of that set up.

__________________
I have one prejudice - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

Actually there is not much to say about it, it has a medion harddiskrecorder (german manufacturer) which had a dv link, the camera (I use an older mini dv cam) is linked directly to it through a 4-4pin firewire cable. Then there is a small tv which is connected to the medion recorder and that's it. Using the Medions set up menu you can select the camera and then select recording, the medion then sends the cameras image directly to the tv. On top of the tv screen there is the possibility to see the recording data which the medion provides. I always leave that visible so you can clearly see that it is recording, that information won't be recorderd to the harddisk but it just a small information stripe on top.
The only thing you see from outside the box is the tv screen and the camera's lens. For the future we are going to see if we can manage the same but with some kind of recording button outside the box, meaning the guests have to press and hold it and during that time it records, in that way I don't have to edit anymore afterwards which will be a big timesaver.
Now I just scroll inside the medion and cut the biggest parts (usually in the beginning of the evening) when nobody was infront of the box, the medion has some limited cutting and deleting capabilities. What's left over I capture to a pc and edit. for the capturing part I use use my sony vx2100 between the medion and my pc to send the images.

One important issue we discovered was that at the end of teh recording the medion has to be shutdown using the remote control, if the power would be interupted during recording the medion looses its data. For that case I give the remote control to the wedding couple and explain how they have to stop the recording, the data on top of the tv screen also shows them that the recording stopped.